The Kids Aren't Alright
by Greysouthpaw
Summary: Damn, the new guy at Hollywood Arts is a bit of a rough one... But anyone who throws Sinjin through a window in their first week can't be too bad right? How will Tori and her friends react to the new force to be reckoned with on campus? He's maybe a little odd, he's definitely a bit violent, but does that mean he won't fit in? Find out his story and his talents. Meet Jace. OC
1. Chapter 1

**A/N- **This is a bit of a change of genre for me, call it a special request Fic for my little cousins who love this show. They wanted a new character to Hollywood Arts, who was a little rougher and edgier like the kind I'm inclined to write. As part of the deal they wanted some romance in there somewhere, so I'll look at sliding some of that in, definitely some Bade, maybe some Cabbie and probably something with the OC too. The mandate sounded alright, so I did my homework and watched all four seasons of the show with them to get a background. I'm just going to have some fun with it and try to put in a bit of a laugh, I look at it as a writing challenge of sorts. Definitely rated T; for what is likely to be a bit of violence and probably a few more mature themes too.

Anyway, what we've got here is the first chapter for said request, delivered as promised kids.

To anyone else who actually happens to be reading it too, cool hope ya find something in it you like. I'm happy to receive your feedback.

Note: I don't own the show Victorious or any of the characters in it, just the one or two I might make up.

_**-Grey.**_

* * *

"So, Trina has got herself a new locker in the other corridor because apparently the ones around here are too unglamorous." Tori revealed dramatically to Cat, Beck, Jade and Andre.

"Unglamorous? Here? Never..." Jade declared sarcastically, flicking Tori's locker hard and causing the lights on it to short out.

"Hey!" The skinny brunette protested, opening her locker and fiddling with the wiring to try get it working again.

"I like your locker better when the lights are on." Cat added helpfully, twining her fingers through her straight red hair with nervous energy.

"Yeah," Andre agreed watching his friend struggling to make it shine once more. "It's still better then a locker covered in half-chewed food or someone's crazy scissor collection though." He sent a pointed look at their Gothic friend.

"They are the ones that have tasted human flesh." Jade corrected him threateningly.

"Well there is a certain amount of social status linked to the location of your locker here at Hollywood Arts." Beck quickly interjected, eager to distract his girlfriend and bring attention away from her odd bi-bladed obsession.

The group's argument was rudely interrupted by a bustling commotion at the foot of the stairs. A familiar, curly-haired tech-nerd with glasses was in trouble and this time it wasn't Robbie.

Sinjin was squeaking excuses in vain, as a much larger boy with short, spiky blonde hair chased him up the stairs. The less athletic of the two only just made it to the top when the pursuer caught up with him. Even with his back turned it was obvious just how outmatched Sinjin was. His opponent, while shorter, was a good deal stockier; a truly physically imposing figure and smashed into the skinny techy as he tried to flee.

Sinjin's single karate lesson obviously hadn't done much for his skills at self-defence. His larger opponent whipped out with a hand and brutally punched Sinjin square in the face, the nerd crumpled instantly. As he groggily tried to find his feet, Sinjin felt large hands take hold of him roughly and launch him forward. The momentum of the shove sent him sailing forward and right through one of the large windows at the top of the stairs, with a tremendous crash. Glass shattered easily and light poured into the building as the awkward teen was ejected from it. Sinjin's high-pitched scream could be heard as he fell, until an abrupt meeting with the ground cut it off.

The entire hallway crowded to the bottom of the steps, staring agape at the drama that had just unfolded, Tori and her friends were no exception. Jade; always the nonconformist wore an amused expression, instead of the usual look of shock and amazement that her classmates went with.

"Damn.." Andre whispered in surprise.

"Don't let me catch you in my locker again!" The sole teen left standing on the landing yelled in warning out the broken window, his voice a low growl.

He turned in place and froze, caught off guard by the gathered spectators and for the majority of the crowd it was their first proper look at the guy.

The star of their attention wasn't the handsomest bloke in the school, certainly not compared to guys like Beck; he was a lot rougher in appearance. His short cropped sandy hair was mismatched by two darker thick eyebrows and was contrasted by his light skin, which immediately marked him as from outside of LA. It was the face of one who had lived hard; the lighter pink pigments of scar tissue scored a line clear through his left eyebrow and made it appear broken. Like he had once had a piercing there which had been violently removed sometime in the past. . His square jaw was shadowed by the presence of a few days unkempt stubble. The pointed nose in the middle of his face kinked slightly left from previous injury and further broke up the symmetry. Two intelligent, blue eyes pierced his face and scanned the crowd sharply, taking in their judgement.

His dark eyebrows quickly dropped again from their surprise and furrowed in conviction while his mouth drew out into a grim slit of a scowl. His large, Moose-like shoulders rose with each deep breath he took in recovery and he defiantly folded two strong-looking arms over his broad chest, stretching the plain green t-shirt tight.

* * *

The silence dragged while he eyed the audience, as if daring them to say something. Tori especially felt burdened by the awkward quiet that had descended, she cleared her throat to talk but was beaten to the chase.

Shoving through the crowd and making his apologies for pushing people out of his way, Lane fought to the front of the mob.

"Did you just push Sinjin out of that window, Jason?" He accused the mysterious youth, who few could remember seeing before.

Taking a step back to lean against the wall, the kid, who was apparently called Jason, rested his head back heavily and slunk his hands away behind his back.

With a slightly puzzled expression, he seemed to hesitate before answering.

"Was that the name of the creepy little weasel kid, who has no respect for privacy?" Jason asked quietly in return.

"Yes!" Lane replied, as if that was obvious.

"It's a fairly accurate description of Sinjin." Tori conceded, earning her nods of agreement from the mob.

Having gained clarification, the violent teen returned to the original question.

"Oh well in that case, yep I guess I did. It was kinda more of a toss then a push though." The rugged young man freely admitted in a blasé tone, arguing the semantics of it all while absently picking a thread on his faded blue jeans.

Lane seemed taken back by the straightforward admission and took a further moment to find his words again.

"Well I'm not sure what it is like where you come from, but fighting isn't tolerated here Mr. McCabe," He reprimanded in his most authoritative, teacherly voice.

"There wasn't much fight in that." Beck commented offhandedly.

"My office now, we need to have a talk." Lane ordered, pointing the way for the guilty teen.

Sighing like he knew what was coming next, the troubled teen kicked off the wall and began to crunch slowly across the broken glass in his thick-soled combat boots, reluctantly tailing the school councilor.

Having lost interest once it was obvious the conflict was over, the majority of the crowd had flittered away and were getting back to their before school activities. One group of friends were slower to leave then the rest though, partly due to it being a slow day for them shenanigans-wise.

It was because they lingered that Tori noticed.

"Hey, you're bleeding!" she exclaimed helpfully in high tones at the departing boy.

Indeed, young Vega was correct too, a long jagged laceration cut down the young man's forearm and was bleeding steadily. Raw pink muscle shined out through the torn flesh and crawled in contraction when he made a fist of that hand. Blood pitter-pattered softly onto the linoleum floor and marked a drippy trail back to the broken window with its protruding shards of glass.

Andre and Beck winced at the painful looking injury; Cat clapped a hand over her mouth in shock and 'eeped' in distress.

"Cool," Jade commented, her eyes alight with interest at the gnarly injury and resulting spilt blood.

The bleeding teen looked back at the group of friends in confusion before seeming to notice the offending limb.

"Huh, would you look at that." He commented in fascination, slowly raising the limb and bringing his good hand up to apply pressure to the wound.

Lane's eyes seemed to bulge at the sight of the blood and he desperately scrabbled for a small bottle of alcohol sanitizer in his pocket, before dispersing ample amounts on his hands. Appearing to calm down from the sweet smell of one of his lotions, the counselor turned back to the matter at hand.

"I can't have him bleeding in my office," He decided, "Tori can you take Jason to the nurse please?"

"S..sure" The pretty Latina stuttered, trying not to look at the exposed muscle and ripped skin.

With a tentative leading hand on the boy's shoulder, Tori started to walk him away to the nurse's station.

"Hey guys, what'd I miss?" Robbie enquired, bouncing up the step to his friends, with Rex in his arms.

"Some guy just threw Sinjin out of a window." Beck explained, remembering all the times the weirdo had done strange things around him or Jade. They still hadn't figured out how the creep had managed to get into her house.

"About time," Rex noted harshly.

"It was a pretty good throw too," Andre commented in what sounded a lot like approval

"He doesn't fly." Cat sadly added, retreating behind her curtain of flaming hair.

"And I missed it?" Robbie exclaimed in disappointment at missing the spectacle.

"Oh don't worry," Jade reassured him with a false sympathy and an all too real malicious smile.

"Once the guy who did it gets back from the nurse and a chat with Lane, maybe he can give you a re-enactment." She suggested sweetly.

"Wow, really Jade, you think he would do that?" Robbie wondered excitedly before cottoning on to what she was implying.

"It would be me getting thrown out of the window wouldn't it?" He checked with Jade.

"That it would," Jade confirmed happily.

"I always say this school could use more nerds being thrown through sheets of glass." Rex smarmily reminded them.

"He does keep saying that." Robbie admitted reluctantly, hoping the trend wouldn't catch on. He was quite partial to not being thrown through things.

"Who was that dude anyway?" Andre wondered aloud, looking at the hole at the top of the stairs leading to the outside world.

"Maybe we can ask Tori when she gets back from taking him to the nurse." Cat suggested; her first intelligent comment for the day and quite possibly her last.

The group nodded in agreement at the idea.

"Guys, I'm still out here." The feeble voice of Sinjin whined from somewhere outside on the concrete.

* * *

"So you must be new here?" Tori vibrantly exclaimed, trying to break the awkward silence that had fell as she escorted the hurt young man to the nurse's clinic.

"Been here a week now." Jason confirmed, distracted by pinching together the two ragged ends of the laceration on his left forearm. Both his hands were completely soaked in blood already.

"Well I'm Tori. Tori Vega." The friendly girl politely introduced herself and extending a hand in greeting, before realising what a silly idea that was considering his present state.

"Jace McCabe." He countered letting go of his wounded left wrist for a moment to give her a firm handshake, with a hand still very wet with blood, not that it seemed to bother him. The cut arm immediately began to produce more blood in the short time the pressure was removed.

Tori on the other hand was a little more upset, her eyes bulging at the messy gesture, while she tried to keep her cool. She felt the warm liquid coat her palm and begin to drip off her onto the floor.

"Wow that thing is just, really bleeding." She nervously gulped, nodding at his cut forearm and distracting the new guy sufficiently for her to wipe her gross bloody hand on the back of her pale jeans.

She poked her tongue out and trembled with disgust while he wasn't looking.

"Yup, it's pretty deep." Jace noted picking at a piece of glass fragment embedded in the wound.

All colour drained from Tori's usually tan face at this gesture.

"Can you please not stick fingers in your wound?" She begged, looking as though she might faint.

"Sorry," The new guy mumbled nonchalantly, oblivious to her reaction. With attention away from him, Jace reached into his pack and withdrew a small flask with a small skull on it and took a deep swig.

"So this is an arts school for the talented, what is your talent Jace? Are you an actor, a singer, a musician, what do you want to do?" Tori quickly asked, changing the subject and trying to avoid thinking about what the new guy might have been drinking.

"Meh, I'm not very talented," Jace shrugged, looking indifferent and wiping his mouth. The flask disappeared back into his pack.

Tori found that a thoroughly dissatisfying response and narrowed her focus in curiosity.

"You must be to have gotten in here." She led him on with an encouraging smile.

Jace stopped in his tracks as they reached the clearly labelled door to the nurse's office.

"Maybe Hollywood Arts was just the only place left that would take me?" He suggested cryptically, stretching the small scar on his lip with a slightly crooked grin.

It was the first smile she had seen from the teen so far, but it had the effect of making him seem a lot less scary for a moment.

Tori considered it for a moment, before thinking that her school wouldn't accept someone in it, unless they had really earned their place. But then again Trina had gotten in, so maybe it just meant Sikowitz was back on the funky fermented coconuts again.

"You really want to know my special talent?" Jace relented, resting his good hand on the door handle.

"Yes!" Tori practically shouted, _why_ _does every guy think they have to be an enigma? _She wondered in exasperation.

"You and your friends just saw it." Jace quietly replied, turning his back and entering the medical area.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N- **hhmpth would you look at that, some other people are actually reading this too… That's pretty cool. Thanks for the reviews.

**-Grey.**

* * *

Morning classes seemed to blitz by with the secular ringing of bells and all too soon it was lunch time.

Outside at their favourite table near the tuck truck, the usual suspects were gathering for lunch. The topic of their discussions was of course the morning's earlier excitement.

"..And I saw the ambulance come and take Sinjin away, he looked pretty beat up." Andre finished his take on things.

"That guy did a pretty good job." Jade commented approvingly, almost wistful, as if disappointed it wasn't her who had gotten to do it. She leaned back against Beck in contentment.

"My brother rode in an ambulance once…" Cat started what was surely another outrageous story about her crazy brother.

"Did he ever throw someone out of a window?" Robbie asked curiously from his position beside her.

"How do you think he stole the ambulance in the first place?" Cat replied as if it was common sense. The group nodded as one, as if that explained everything.

"Whatever Sinjin did, it seems a bit extreme to just toss him out a window, that new guy seems a little unbalanced." Beck gave his input, steering away from another one of Cat's insane stories about her brother.

"It was Sinjin." Jade offered harshly as if that was explanation enough. "Who cares what he did?"

Having grabbed a taco from the truck, Tori came to sit down between Andre and Robbie.

Before she could take a seat however, she was ambushed by questions from her friends.

"What did you think of the hot new guy Tori?" Cat asked inquisitively.

"What's he like?" Robbie wanted to know, before double taking at Cat's question.

"Wait, the hot new guy?" he challenged her description.

"Well he's not ugly and does have big arms and shoulders." Cat explained, shifting in her seat nervously and blushing slightly, Robbie sat gaping and perplexed.

"And the whole bad boy thing going on." Beck added unhelpfully, causing Robbie's scowl to deepen.

"Really?" Robbie replied unsure and decided to seek their originally intended opinion.

"What did you think Tori?" He asked again.

"Well I.." The Latina started uncertainly before Andre cut her off.

"I think we know what Tori thought of him." Her best friend supplied, staring at her white jeans, with a broad smirk.

With a gentle push on her hips, Andre turned Tori around where she stood to show off the smeared, bloody print on the seat of her tight jeans. The crimson stain was quite blatantly a handprint and showed up clearly in contrast against the pale colouration of her pants.

Tori groaned loudly as she looked over her shoulder to see the stain; she had completely forgotten about the bloody handshake and wiping her hand on herself.

Her friends had clearly read much more into the situation.

"Oh Tori, someone has been finger painting on your butt." Cat absently informed her, drawing a completely different conclusion to the others.

"And we've got a pretty good idea who.." Jade added with a wide wicked grin, she was enjoying this far more then she should.

"His hands were covered in blood when you left together and that is definitely blood." Robbie agreed, laying out the evidence that lay before them. Having had plenty of bleeding noses in his time, Robbie was intimately familiar with the appearance of dried blood on clothes.

"Damn girl, you will give the violent, new guy a feel but not me?" Rex callously accused her, highly offended in his own puppet fashion.

"I gave no one a feel!" Tori adamantly defended herself, uncomfortable as to the direction of the conversation.

"The handprint on your ass would suggest otherwise." Andre pointed out, jokingly.

"It was my hand!" Tori exclaimed stubbornly, turning around to hide the mark from her friends, before realising she was then just showing it to the rest of the school seated behind her. She quickly sat down and folded her arms moodily, flushed with embarrassment over the whole affair.

"Why would you grab your own butt?" Beck seemed to want to know, Jade sent him a dirty look for bothering to ask. He had a sinking feeling that his question had just become more ammunition for Jade in a future fight.

"I sometimes grab mine." Cat input airily, eager to still be part of the conversation, despite the odd looks it earned her from the rest of the group.

"Ladies, please go on." Robbie encouraged, interested as to where this topic was going.

"With blood on your hands too, that's kinda kinky." Jade admitted, adding fuel to the already blazing fire. Winding up Tori was pretty much her favourite activity after scissoring up flowers.

"Enough." Tori cut off her friends leaning forward into the table to dominate their attention.

"There was no copping a feel by anyone, I had blood on my hand and absently wiped it off on my jeans." She clarified, much to the disappointment of her friends.

"Righttt." Andre contributed disbelievingly.

"A likely story." Jade sarcastically agreed.

"If Tori said that is what happened, then that is what happened." Beck defended her, the evidence seeming inconsistent with the Tori he knew. He received a grateful look from her for his effort and another scowl from the girl leaned against him. Maybe that fight he anticipated wasn't in the too distant future, he thought to himself in dread.

"Hey look it is Sinjin, he's back from the hospital." Cat yelled, distracting the group from their current controversy.

And she was right, the scrawny Techy hobbled towards them on crutches, his lower right leg encased in a thick, vomit green cast. One of his eyes was almost swollen closed with bruising; dark purple surrounded his eye socket.

Unlike Jade's one time black eye, this one wasn't faked.

* * *

"Hey Sinjin." Robbie apprehensively greeted the boy.

"Hey guys," Sinjin excitedly greeted, to mumbled 'hellos', 'hi's' and a 'go away' from Jade.

"How ya doing there?" Beck eventually asked.

"Not bad at all; a broken leg and a black eye, it could have been worse." Sinjin shrugged his weedy shoulders.

"Why were you looking through that guy's locker in the first place?" Tori blurted out, unsure if he wanted to know the answer.

"I didn't know it was his." Sinjin easily explained.

"Well who's did you think it was?" Andre pressed.

"Well it had a full length mirror for a door so I thought it was still Trina's." Sinjin pointed out like it was obvious.

"Ahh the new guy must have gotten Trina's old locker and hadn't removed her mirror yet." Robbie declared like he had solved a real mystery, rather then just stating the obvious.

"Can we stop just calling him the new guy?" Tori objected at the constant use of the title for a person.

"His name is Jace," She added.

"Where?!" Sinjin demanded in panic, looking around frantically for his earlier attacker.

"Wait, why would you want to get into Trina's locker in the first place?" A confused Beck pointed out.

"Well when I saw she was still using Tori's underwear for tissues, I had to get in on that." The backstage geek explained creepily, waggling his eyebrows suggestively.

"Gross." Tori huffed indignantly, standing to accost the weirdo with her massive handbag.

She was beaten to the chase by someone else though.

A shrill voice cut across the quad.

"I'm going to end you Sinjin, stay out of my locker!" Trina Vega screamed in fury storming towards him.

"Uhoh I gotta go." Sinjin squeaked, before taking out what looked like an oddly lacy black handkerchief and sniffing it intensely as he crutched off as fast as he could.

"So creepy." Jade commented, unintentionally reassuring Tori.

In the background, Sinjin was obviously not quick enough, as he was crash tackled by Trina, who promptly started kicking the bejesus out of him. Crutches flailed in the air as he futilely tried to defend himself.

"I need to start locking my room." Tori decided despondently. Andre patted her on the back comfortingly.

Two tables down, a familiar young male slowly took a seat by himself, his left arm was neatly bandaged in white.

"Tori, you should ask your new friend to come sit over here with us." Cat suggested in excitement.

"Oh no Cat, he's not really my friend.." Tori quickly declared uncomfortably. The guy was a bit weird.

Jade's eyes light up at her frenemy's apprehension and a cruel smile crossed her face.

"Aww but he's sitting all by himself, let's invite him to eat with us." She simpered in her 'I'm mocking Tori voice'.

"I don't talk like that!" Tori rebelled out of habit.

Beck and Robbie started to object along with Tori, but Jade was already out of her seat and sauntering over to the lone lunch-man. Cat gave a small cheer, she loved meeting new people.

* * *

"Hey," Jade called coolly to the teen, who had just retrieved a thick meat sandwich from a brown paper bag.

In concession to the bright Hollywood sun, Jace had donned a battered pair of black Bolle sunglasses, the heavily tinted lenses providing him with superior relief from the light.

The spiky, light haired boy's head snapped up at her address and he eyed her sharply even through the shadowy ionised glass.

"Hey," He returned guardedly, as if expecting a trap.

"I'm Jade, why don't you come on over and eat lunch with me and my friends?" She suggested in a tone that implied it was less of an idea and more of a command.

"It's Jace and I'm good here thanks." Jace declined her offer, turning back to his lunch.

Spurned on by his rejection, Jade pushed harder.

"Oh but I insist." She amended, stepping closer and fixing a strong grip on one of his large biceps.

Her action changed something in the boy and he slowly pushed the sunglasses back upon top of his head so she could see his eyes, as they flashed with something dangerous, which made even Jade reconsider her decision. The simple green T-shirt he wore tightened as the muscles beneath them tensed in anticipation of trouble.

"You want me to eat with you that bad? Fine. But you are going to want to let go of my arm." He warned in a low menacing growl.

Jade met his blazing eyes for a moment before seeing something serious in them and reluctantly relinquishing her grip. The intensity of his fixed gaze seemed to promise dire consequence if his wishes were not respected and Jade felt obliged to comply, an odd feeling for her.

With contact broken, the new guy became very gracious once more.

"It would be a pleasure to eat with you and your friends, please lead the way." Jace conceded, stowing his unbitten sandwich and slinging his Coyote tan backpack over one shoulder. His pale blue eyes seemed to soften with his words.

With her ultimate goal achieved, Jade was able to strut back to the table with him in tow, looking like she was unaffected by their intense little exchange at the other table.

The group exchanged nervous glances at the each other at the sudden arrival of an outsider to their table.

* * *

With a flourish Jade made the introductions, starting of course with her boyfriend.

"Jace, this is Beck, my boyfriend." She explained with a huge grin, knowing that she had led the new guy on to an extent.

Jace eyed Beck for a moment before courteously extending a hand, if anything he looked relieved by the news. His hand was still faintly stained red from the earlier bloodshed.

"Beck?" He confirmed, "Good, she has a boyfriend." Jace mumbled under his breath.

"Pardon me?" Beck paused mid manly handshake, caught by surprise with his comment.

"Good?" Jade growled as if that was insulting.

"Yeah good," Jace repeated, before gesturing at Jade.

"You come over to me and want me at your table so bad, a guy has gotta figure you were interested in something together. Nice to know I don't have to deal with that." He explained, callously emphasising the 'that'.

"That?" Jade reiterated angrily, glaring at the new comer.

Beck being the bigger man and knowing how his girlfriend came across, wisely decided to drop it. With a swift hand he dragged Jade back to sit at the table.

"I like this guy," André declared, seeing how well he had served up Jade and offering a handshake himself.

"André." He introduced himself, with an approving nod.

Tori also liked the fact that Jade was being put in her box, by the new guy.

"Hey Jason, remember me Tori?" She waved enthusiastically from across the table.

"My mum called me Jason, It's just Jace." The new guy corrected her casually.

"Jace, that's cool." She amended quickly, somewhat taken back at the rebuke..

"It rhythms with space," Cat happily informed the group with a laugh, "And Mace." She suddenly realised, reaching for the small canister in her bag and holding it between her and the new guy, looking worriedly at him.

Robbie looked at her with familiar concern before speaking up. His reassuring hand guided the canister of Mace back into her bag.

"That's Cat, I'm Robbie and this is Rex." He introduced briskly, gesturing to each in turn.

"Can you throw someone else through a window for us?" Rex bluntly asked, much to everyone's horror.

"Riiiight" Jace commented with a confused look on his angular face at the strange red head and the guy with a puppet on his lap.

"You guys are weird, so I'm going to go." He decided holding up open palms to the group as if to placate them, while he stood up.

"No, stay!" Cat insisted desperately, thinking she must have scared him off with her weird behaviour and lunging forward to grab onto his bandaged arm, yanking hard back towards the table.

With a sudden realisation as to what she had done, Cat immediately let go and withdrew her hands in fright.

* * *

"I'm so sorry," Cat gasped looking at the bandage and remembering the ugly wound underneath.

"It's alright," The injured teen assured her, seeming unaffected.

"I can't feel anything in that arm anyway." He shrugged indifferently, shouldering his bag once more.

"Really?" Andre murmured in interest, before reaching over to prod the top of the bandage.

"André!" Tori cried in shock, which was unnecessary as the recipient didn't even flinch.

Given his non-reaction, Jade reached over to violently stab his arm with her sushi chopstick.

"Didn't feel it." Jace brushed off the attack nonchalantly.

Andre, Robbie, Beck and Tori reached over to deliver a range of prods and jabs with their various eating utensils.

"Nothing." The new guy confessed sitting down once more, resigned to their fascination in his numb arm.

"Cool," Jade concluded, grabbing a pair of scissors from her bag and trying again, with no result.

"Hiiyaaah!" Cat yelled, suddenly stabbing down using all her might, with the fork in her hand.

Into Jace's other arm.

The teen immediately tensed in pain, his face twisting in agony as the fork gouged deep into his arm. His dark brows knitted together in restraint, to stop him crying out.

"Uhhh it is just my left arm that can't feel anything…" He hissed to Cat through gritted teeth, the eating utensil still embedded in his right forearm. Slowly Jace reached over and withdrew the penetrating object and passed it back to the owner.

"Kay kay," Cat replied breezily, immediately accepting her fork and slamming it into his other arm instead without hesitation.

The rest of the group shook their heads in disappointment at the four small bleeding marks that remained in Jace's right wrist.

"That's kinda creepy," Robbie noted jabbing harder and harder with his knife to no avail.

"So why can't you feel anything in that arm man?" Andre asked, in fascination, wondering if he too could learn how to have an invincible arm.

"Car crash; suffered some pretty bad nerve damage." Jace explained in a slur, as if it was pretty normal.

"Yeah that will do it." Beck conceded.

"Gnarly," Andre agreed, even Jade seemed to forget earlier transgressions and appeared to think it was interesting.

* * *

"So what is your talent then Jace, why are you here at Hollywood arts?" Robbie inquired, trying to get his head around the new guy as they ate together.

Robbie wanted to see what threat this manly mystery posed to his chances with the two remaining girls in the group. His gaze instantly fell to the impressionable Cat, who had a remarkably high boyfriend count considering her rather innocent appearance. _That girl seems to attract guys like honey, _Robbie thought to himself in concern, watching her still prodding Jace's numb arm with a hairpin.

The roughened teen shied under the spotlight cast upon him, as the group waited for an answer.

The slur in his voice seemed more pronounced when he eventually got round to answering.

"Imma good with the physical stuff you know? Fighting, jumping, falling and the like." He shrugged humbly, not wanting to go into too much detail.

"Physical Theatrics and Arts," Beck concluded shooting a finger in recognition of the area of expertise. It was one of Beck's minors after all.

The group collectively nodded their heads in understanding, remembering the stage combat they all practiced and Beck's daring fall for Tori.

"Yeah, I figured maybe I could learn the trade and get into the stuntman gig, fight choreography or something." Jace finished at a trailing off mumble.

"Cool, so that's why you came here to Hollywood Arts." Cat concluded happily.

"Uh yeah." Jace muttered, ducking his head and shrinking his broad shoulders in at the question, as if to try and reduce his size. The trick seemed to work and Andre remembered something he had to ask Tori about. With the distraction that provided, Jace dug into the front pocket of his bag and swiftly snatched out his skull-flask. Out of the limelight, he took a fair swig from it before silently replacing the item.

Those who saw, pretended not to notice.

He sat slightly back from the circle of friends and contented himself to just listen to the inane babble that occurred between close friends while he ate his lunch. It was something he had never really had and it put him a bit on edge to hear the playful banter as the friends discussed their various problems.

Unable to take anymore he quietly stood, clutching his bag.

"Uh.. thanks for lunch. I've got to get to my detention." He muttered in a small appreciative voice that seemed dwarfed by his formidable physique. Lane had gone easy on the new boy because it was his first week and quite frankly the councillor thought the Van Kleef kid was a bit creepy too.

"It was fun." Tori declared reassuringly with her largest smile at the unusual guy.

"Catch you round man," Andre farewelled with a casual wave.

"Yeah later." Beck agreed, before getting back to his fries.

"I enjoyed stabbing you." Jade admitted, the closest she got to a genuine friendly comment.

"Me too!" Cat added excitedly, giving him one last jab in the other arm for good measure.

"The apparent lack of sensation in your arm was most fascinating." Robbie concurred.

"We'll have to throw some nerds outta windows together sometime." Rex offered, before ominously turning to stare at his master.

"Bye." Jace simply said to the group before drifting away from the table.

* * *

"He seemed alright," Andre declared aloud, with an easy going shrug.

"A bit weird though," Robbie tacked on, as if he wasn't.

"Was he drinking out of a hipflask?" André checked with the others in confusion, unsure he had seen right.

"With a skull and crossbones on it?" Beck confirmed pointing a finger at his mate.

"Yeah." André agreed.

"You don't have one of those things just to drink apple juice out of it," Rex noted.

"Maybe he comes from pirate heritage?" Robbie suggested, thinking that it sounded like a perfectly rational and awesome explanation. Secretly he wished he had pirate heritage instead of accountant heritage.

"Weird." Tori agreed with the boys.

"But weird doesn't necessarily mean bad right? I mean we are all a bit strange." Cat laughed off the idea in a carefree manner.

"Some of us more then others." Rex crassly pointed out to the red-headed girl, who had absently eaten most of the paper wrapping from her burrito.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Cat demanded in quickly forgotten offence.

"I'm not weird." Tori protested, looking around at the others defensively.

Jade snorted at her appeal.

"Please? You're almost eighteen and still don't have your drivers license." She pointed out with malicious glee.

The others nodded and murmured in agreement, it was a bit strange.

"I'm just not quite ready yet." Tori hissed vehemently.

"How long do you want? Another eighteen years?" Beck quipped cleverly, with a good natured grin.

Determined to change the subject, Tori went back to their original subject and tried to ignore the laughs at her expense.

"So what did you think of the guy Cat?" She asked coyly of her red haired friend, hoping for a great distracting Cat-moment.

"Well I liked him," Cat innocently answered not noticing the expression of pain her response caused to Robbie beside her.

"He didn't even get mad when I stabbed him in the wrong arm." She explained

"You like everyone Cat," Robbie grumbled somewhat jealously and ignored by the group.

"So André thought he was okay, same with Cat. How about another guy's opinion; what did you think Mr. Smartarse?" Tori directed the question back at Beck.

Robbie threw his hands up in indignation again at having once again not merited the classification of guy in his friend's eyes.

The cool teen casually brushed a hand through his long silky hair before answering.

"I dunno, I got mixed messages from the guy." Beck honestly answered.

"What do you mean?" Tori enquired.

"He seemed like a bit of a loose cannon ya know? I got a real dangerous vibe off him, but then the whole time he was here he was nothing but polite and civil, almost shy." Beck explained the contradiction.

"I'd definitely believe he's here to do stunt-work." André commented thoughtfully.

"Jade, you are mysteriously quiet on this issue." Tori noted studiously.

The gothic girl in question was pulled from own musings by the comment and quickly entered the conversation.

Briefly thinking back to the glare she got upon grabbing Jace's arm, she settled on a suitable conclusion.

"He isn't completely boring." Jade decided, which from her, was actually pretty high praise.

Beck raised an eyebrow at the unexpected answer, as did the rest of the group. Jade's default setting was pretty much to hate everything.

* * *

"Why do you want to know what we think of him anyway, Vega?" Jade turned the question round and raising an eyebrow suggestively.

Tori was temporarily lost for words and Jade took advantage of the fact.

"Does our little Tori have a crush?" She simpered in the derisive tone she reserved only for the pretty Latina. Her prey could only gape further like a fish out of water at the shocking allegation and stretch in logic.

"Maybe that hand-print wasn't hers after all?" Rex insinuated, getting on board with the line of thinking. Cat and Robbie gasped simultaneously at the possible scandal that presented itself.

"Stop!" Tori shouted for the second time that day, ceasing the building speculation.

"What is it, pick on Tori day?" She cried in exasperation.

"No, it's Tuesday." Cat supplied good-naturedly. André and Beck shared a confused look; it was actually Thursday.

Tori took the chance to set the record straight, counting the issue off on her fingers.

"I don't have a crush on anyone, Jade." She started, causing a small sigh from both Robbie and André. Jade simply narrowed her eyes challengingly.

"If I did it wouldn't be the psycho new guy at our school." Tori stated firmly.

Robbie nodded supportively of the new label.

"Secondly, that is definitely my hand-print, I wiped my hand on my jeans after he got blood on them."

"I guess you could say you were caught red-handed." André painfully punned, receiving a heavy kick under the table for his trouble.

"Ow dammit Jade!" He cried, clutching his freshly bruising shin.

"Yeah it was Jade who kicked you…Obviously." Beck assured André conspicuously, sitting up straighter in his chair to detract suspicion from him. Having a violent girlfriend made a great scapegoat sometimes.

Jade simply glared back at Andre, her boyfriend had simply beat her to the punch, or kick as it happened to be. She shot him a secret approving smile when the offended party was no longer looking.

Tori continued on in spite of her friend's antics.

"And thirdly, I'm only asking because I know what is like to be new here and have no friends." She finished emphatically.

"It's hard to try and fit in when you don't know anyone," Tori finished, remembering her miserable first day.

"So you think we should try and befriend the whackjob?" Jade confirmed dubiously.

"Well we are friends with you, how much worse can he be?" Tori shot back.

"Famous last words," Beck muttered, somewhat supportively of his girlfriend.

* * *

"Guys, if we are talking about friends shouldn't we consider another friend we have overlooked in all this?" Robbie piped up.

"What do you mean Robbie?" Cat slowly asked, struggling to keep up with the conversations bearing.

"Well, Sinjin is kind of a friend right?" Shipero noted with a shrug.

"In the loosest sense of the word," André reluctantly agreed.

"He has a pair of my underwear!" Tori objected in offence

"He was in my room!" Jade protested venomously.

"A creepy friend," Beck amended, remembering the various antics and peculiarities of the boy, but also the decent company he provided at the NASCAR.

"Well then don't you guys think he deserves an apology from Jace for throwing him out a window?" Robbie continued, beginning to get frustrated at all the cutting in.

The response he received was less then favourable.

A chorus of shrugs 'meh' 'not really' and a single 'I don't care' came from the indifferent table of friends.

"Ha! Good luck getting an apology out of him!" Rex cackled at his owner.

"I'm with the puppet on this one." Jade seconded the idea mean spiritedly.

"Once I explain the misunderstanding to Jace, I'm sure he will feel guilty and go apologise to Sinjin." Robbie naively rationalised, earning himself a second 'Ha' from the little felt man on his arm.

"It's your funeral." Beck commented doubtfully.

"Yeah, but don't worry Rob, we will say something real nice at the wake." André added, running with the funeral theme.

"I can wear my pretty veil!" Cat exclaimed happily.

Upset that Cat too doubted him and was now in fact probably looking forward to his funeral, Robbie stood up abruptly.

"You guys just wait," Robbie ordered.

"I'll get Sinjin the apology he deserves." The awkward teen declared to his friends, before snatching up Rex and marching off.

"So.. Robbie is what? 6,1? 6, 2?" Tori nervously asked the others about his height.

She received confused murmurs of agreement.

"My uncle builds coffins." Tori explained with a guilty grimace.

Her revelation earned her comments of mixed response from her friends.

"Ohh, Righttt,"

"Maybe you can get him a discount?"

"Planning ahead, good thinking,"

"Can we shove the puppet in there with him too?"

(Guess which one was from Jade.)


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N- **My apologies for the delay, things have been busy my end. Other fics on the go as well too, anyone foolish enough to be following my community fic currently in hiatus, can expect an update on that in the near future. Maybe another chapter for my old FF followings as well. Exciting stuff.

Anyway bit of a short chapter this time I've kinda spit two, this does mean the other half isn't far behind it though.

**-Grey.**

* * *

It was the next day and Tori was busy trying to start the lights on her locker again; they still weren't working from when Jade had stopped them. The pretty brunette huffed in frustration as her efforts were in vain and the LEDs remained persistently off.

She slammed the door angrily, vehemently cursing under her breath, the girl who had caused the personalised lighting to short out.

No sooner had she closed her locker, then the only person she could think of to fix it walked by.

Robbie slowly shuffled past Tori, his head tilted deep in thought, his hand absently scratched where a beard would grow in a more mature person. In his arms, Rex mirrored the stance, but probably had a greater chance of ever having facial hair to muse with.

"Robbie," Tori called, breaking him from his pondering pose.

"Hey Tori," He mumbled back distractedly.

"Hotstuff..." Rex greeted her far more passionately.

Sending the dodgy puppet a filthy look, Tori decided to try and enlist Robbie as her electrician once more.

"Robbie can you please help me here? I can't get the lights on my locker working again." She pleaded, endearing her case a little further by reaching in to touch his shoulder while batting her eyelids.

To Tori's surprise she noticed genuine reluctance on her friend's part and she couldn't help but wonder if she was losing her touch. Turning up the manipulation another notch, she rubbed her hand down from his shoulder to his arm and bared her eyes to the point of tears.

"Please?" She tried again, giving it everything she had.

The nerd sighed heavily in deliberation before finally giving into the physical contact of a pleading girl like usual.

"I guess I could have a look at it," Robbie eventually relented, shying slightly at the attention the pretty girl gave him to earn his help.

Tori ducked forward with an overdramatic squeal to hug her friend, gushing a quick thank you.

"But then I need your help with something." Robbie stipulated as she broke off the quick hug.

Tori's jubilation faded slightly as she considered the change in agreement.

"Wait, I'm still not shaving the back of your neck." She firmly laid down.

"No, no its not that, I've got that… sorted." Robbie reassured her, nervously rubbing his neck stubble, it was the only stubble he had. The person who had shaved his neck had sworn him to secrecy.

"It's about getting Jace to apologise to Sinjin." He confessed in a whisper, as if the violent teen in question was just around the corner.

"Haven't you talked to him yet?" Tori seemed surprised.

"Robbie is afraid of the guy, he thinks he's going to end up out a window like Sinjin." Rex elaborated with glee and no attempt to lower his voice.

"Rex shhhh," The nerd squeaked, hastily covering the puppets mouth and looking around to see if anyone heard him.

Across the hall, just outside the mirrored locker, the teen in question frantically dug through his locker, as if he had lost something important. Seeming finally to give up and still facing into the space he discretely lifted his flask up for a swig, just as Rhyder Daniels was walking past.

Whether intentional or not in the crowded corridor, Rhyder ended up knocking into Jace, causing him to choke on his drink.

"Opps," The cool teen mumbled, not sounding very sorry about the accident.

The coughing teen didn't hesitate though and swung his upper body quickly and shot out an elbow backwards at the 'clumsy' departing Daniels. The elbow caught Rhyder square in the back of the head and smashed him face first into the line of lockers.

"Opps" Jace growled back, wiping his mouth and slinging his bag over a shoulder, before exiting past where Tori and Robbie stood together. He seemed unconcerned about the devastation he left behind and was obviously preoccupied.

"Where is it?" They heard him moodily mumble to himself as he passed.

By the look of the dented lockers and the slumped way the teen landed, it was pretty apparent Rhyder had been knocked out. No sooner had he hit the ground, had a flock of shallow girls flocked over to try and help him up, leading the pack of course was Trina. She bodily pushed one or more girl out of the way to get to her 'poor Rhyder'

Despite the fact that he didn't seem to need it, she was already attempting to start mouth to mouth resuscitation, albeit with probably a little more tongue then what is usually used. His previous encounter with Tori had done little to reduce his good looks to her, the lockers on the other hand..

"Na, why would you be afraid of that guy?" Tori murmured sounding a little frightened herself as they watched Daniels struggle to fight off an enthusiastic Trina. Secretly Tori quite enjoyed the sight, that tool deserved everything he got.

Rhyder's legs still seemed very unsteady under him and luckily he had a bevy of girls to support him. He clutched a hand to his face and his obviously broken nose, handsome as he was, the blood running down his chin did nothing to enhance those looks.

Robbie gulped, thinking how that could quite easily be him, minus of course the girls all concerned about him.

"Why did I think I could get an apology out of someone like that?" He vocalised miserably.

"Well, don't do it then, the apology probably isn't worth a punch in the head." Tori rationalised for him.

Remembering his original intention behind the action, Robbie drew strength again and some rare courage.

"No I said to the group that I'd get an apology from Jace and that is what I'm going to do." Shipero firmly restated.

"Why's it so important to you that he apologises to Sinjin. You two aren't even that tight?" Tori enquired suspiciously, she had a hunch something else was going on.

"Tell her," Rex commanded his master.

* * *

"Well its about Cat.." The nervous nerd started and that was enough to make all the world of sense to Tori.

"She likes him?" Tori confirmed, suddenly seeing why Robbie was so edgy.

"Well she said that Jace was all big and strong, with that kind of badboy appeal to him." Robbie agreed miserably, holding his hands out helplessly.

"And that upsets you." Tori sympathised.

"Well yeah I ain't tough or muscly and I only barely get the title of Boy, let alone badboy." The nerd continued downcast.

"I see the problem here." Tori commented, thinking of his less then manly history.

"I've tried, I can't pull off tank, buff or tough we both know that. So the only way I can maybe change her mind is by showing her that Jace isn't the cool casual badass he appears to be."

Tori nodded, all this was true so far and Robbie continued his explanation.

"If he says sorry for hitting Sinjin then that shows he does care and therefore can't be the uncaring bad boy."

Tori nodded again seeing the logic to his plan but not how he could pull it off.

"I dunno, he doesn't seem like the sorta guy that apologises for much." She remarked doubtfully, staring at the bloody mark left on the dented locker.

"Maybe so, but I've got to try." Robbie stated in a determination she hadn't seen before.

_He is serious about this,_ she realised and felt quite impressed by her friend for a change.

Not impressed enough to want to help him though.

"Yeah good luck with that." Tori cheerfully wished him, as she started to slink away.

"And you are going to help me, remember?" Robbie doggedly reminded her.

"Damn," Tori moaned.

"Wait," She realised, "You have to try fix my locker first."

"Oh Tori, that should be easy and only take a minute." He dismissed the job as minor, before taking a small screwdriver set from his bag.

"A bit of a tweak here and a bit of a tweak there.." He mumbled to himself as he altered the wiring one handed.

"Don't forget the-" Tori started

"Yeah yeah, I know." Robbie impatiently cut off his well-meaning friend, in his eagerness to get the job finished.

No sooner had the words left his mouth; there was a blinding flash of light and a loud crack.

All the lights in the school flickered and when they came back on, Robbie was lying on the floor about ten feet back from the locker. Smoke wafted off his clothes and the smell of burnt hair was strong in the air. Robbie's curly hair all stood up on end from the electric current and he coughed feebly before sitting up.

"Your locker is on the mains power not batteries isn't it?" He grumbled groggily.

"I didn't want to keep paying for batteries," Tori guiltily admitted kneeling down by her almost electrocuted friend.

"Oh yay it's working again." She happily noted looking back at her once more illuminated locker. No sooner had she said it, did the lights cut out again. Tori's face dropped in disappointment.

"Damn it," She cursed sulkily.

Robbie's head slumped back heavily onto the floor once more, beside him his puppet did the same.

"I tried," He croaked.

André strolled past the two taking in the scene as he went.

"Wild looking Fro this morning Rob," He coolly complimented, nodding approvingly at his supine friend's hairdo.

Robbie weakly waved a hand in acknowledgement.

André was quickly followed by a rushing Lane, who craned his neck to try and find the culprit guilty of decking another Hollywood Arts student.

"Did you see which way Jace McCabe went?" He urgently inquired of the three.

Tori paused at the question uncertainly before pointing in the opposite direction to the one the unstable teen had left in, after hitting Rhyder.

"Thanks." Lane mumbled gratefully before adding. "Nice hair Robbie."

With that the councillor bustled off to find his violent new charge. Tori fought to suppress a cunning grin. The new guy, weird as he might be, earned a bit of favor in her book for hitting her least favorite ex. She felt somewhat obliged to do him one in return.

Shapiro gave another feeble wave, accepting the counsellor's compliment.

Tori and André exchanged worried looks.

"Well we'd better get to class I guess, you coming Robbie?" André asked his downed friend.

"I'll catch up, you still owe me Tori." Robbie coughed weakly, before passing out.

"I'm sure he'll be fine.." Tori commented uncertainly, before hastily making for class with André.

If he did die then she didn't have to fulfill her debt and help him weasel an apology out of Jace.


	4. Chapter 4

The students for Sikowitz's class slowly entered the rooms in small groups, the Shrugger's filled the back and left hand side of the room leaving spare seats for the people who actually talked and interacted in class.

Beck and Jade already had seats in the middle, behind Cat, when Tori and André ambled in. Finding a space among the empty chairs, Tori slunk into the chair next to Beck only, to be seated with an unexpected squelch. In a flash and with a squeal of surprise, she bounced back up to examine her seat; her fingers came back to reveal a sticky red substance.

With a horrible realisation, Tori turned her head to look over a shoulder and was mortified to see a matching dark red stain on the rear of her favourite pair of blue jeans. Her pretty face fell in humiliation as she realised it was the second time in a week she had been caught in a similar situation.

Her shame turned into anger as she searched for a reason as to why the sticky substance was on her seat in the first place. A brief glance around and some common sense quickly pieced the cause together.

The chair right next to Beck. The embarrassed, disapproving look Beck wore and the malicious smirk his girlfriend beside him sported. The signs were all there.

"Oh dear, Vega. You've got to watch where you sit." Jade commented in a pseudo-friendly voice. Her smarmy expression seemed to further highlight the insincerity of her concern.

"Jade!" Tori hissed in outrage. "Why would you do that?"

"Meh, I dunno bored," Her antagonist shrugged indifferently in reply while checking her nails.

Suspicious of the mystery red substance she had sat in, Tori disgustedly raised a coated hand to her nose for a reluctant sniff. Confusion lined her attractive face at the smell that reached her and she ever so cautiously dared to lick a blob one of her smeared fingers.

"Is this ketchup?" She demanded of the culprit, after vaguely recognising the taste.

"Lucky guess," Jade mumbled, "I had a whole bunch of spare sachets in my bag for some reason." She seemed somewhat puzzled over the finding.

Suddenly she perked up.

"Actually, chalk that up as my reason why." The mean girl happily decided.

Beside her Beck shook his head sadly, his girlfriend's jealous nature was a cause for constant consternation.

Tori sighed sadly to herself and wiped off the excess condiment back on the seat, before choosing a fresh one a few spaces over near cat and Andre. This one she was careful to check before sitting down.

She shot a dirty look back at Jade only to receive a smug smile in return. Jade was always so mean to her, that was pretty much the norm, but she really didn't feel in the mood for it today.

Cat looked around with a lost look to her, which was not unusual.

"Where's Robbie?" She asked André, who shared hesitant looks with Tori before answering.

"Uh, I'm sure he's fine Cat, probably just a little late." He brushed it off trying to sound casual, while wondering at the same time how much electricity the human body can take in one go.

The hubbub of noise started to dim down as Sikowitz sauntered into the room looking more furtive then usual. Slinking in through the door he left it open a crack and motioned to the children to remain quiet.

"Quick, in here." He hissed in to an unseen figure outside the class.

To everyone's surprise, the edgy looking Jace McCabe followed him into the class, only to jump in surprise when he noticed it was full of students.

"What's this?" He accused the derelict teacher, his cold eyes narrowing.

* * *

"Why it's my class." Sikowitz announced proudly gesturing to his pupils.

"You're a teacher?" Jace disbelievingly checked.

"Of course I am, a teacher of only the noblest art; Acting." The teacher theatrically revealed with a flourish.

_Of course, he couldn't teach a real subject, _Jace sarcastically thought. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth though, instead he said.

"And you were still willingly to hide me from that weird counselor in exchange for half my sandwich?" Jace confirmed making sure he had the story straight.

"Yup," The crazy man assured him starting to look a bit irritated with the rehash.

"Now pay up boy." Sikowitz demanded, waggling his hands expectantly.

The teen was still a bit confused about the whole situation, but he fulfilled his part of the deal and handed over half of his lunch to his unorthodox saviour.

"Excellent, ham and cheese," Sikowitz gleefully noted, unwrapping the morsel.

"Take a seat anywhere, Lane won't come looking for you here." The teacher assured him, sinking his teeth into the bread. Cat moved her seat over to accommodate Jace in the absent Robbie's chair, closest to the window.

"Sikowitz, why would you want to hide a student from Lane?" Beck wanted to know.

"You mean apart from this delicious sandwich?" Sikowitz responded spraying the front row with partially chewed food.

Tori wiped a fleck of ham off her face in disgust.

"I think that's what Beck wanted to know." Jade snidely clarified.

"Oh, well Lane parked in my car park again this morning so I'm a little bit whazzed off with him over that still." Sikowitz explained grumpily.

"Also it is kind of funny." He added after a moment in a much lighter tone.

"I literally just thought he was a hobo, who might know somewhere I could lay low for a while in exchange for some food." Jace quietly admitted to Tori and Cat.

"He does dress like a homeless guy," Tori conceded, remembering making the same initial mistake when she met him.

"And smell like one." Cat added helpfully.

"He says that showers remove his natural pheromones." André chipped in overhearing the conversation.

The derelict teacher in question was already getting the rest of the class moving and an unheard of change to his usual pattern, he pulled up four of the bland looking Shruggers to do an improvisational scene.

* * *

"Why are you hiding from Lane anyway Jace?" Cat inquired curiously, sidling a little closer to the boy. She was glad for a change that she hadn't been picked for the acting exercise, because it meant she got to talk to the new boy some more.

The teen under suspicion darted his eyes left and then right as though he feared he was being listened in on. Both Sikowitz and the rest of the class were engrossed in the terrible performance being put on by the Shruggers.

"Uhh no reason, he might want to talk to me about a student who.. had an accident." He supplied sheepishly adding in his own euphemism when it was needed.

Cat appeared confused by this answer and her further questions were cut off by Beck leaning forward to comment.

"This other student didn't end up out a window too did he?" The cool kid in the group cynically inquired.

"No, he hurt himself in the hallway." Jace quickly replied, his paranoia at being overheard proven to be founded.

"Really?" Cat enquired genuinely.

"Really?" André copied her but far less convinced.

Tori slunk lower in her seat not wanting to comment on the event either way.

"Oh yes tragic, blood everywhere." The new teen unconvincingly assured them and starting to bristle up at the interrogation.

"Awesome," Jade commented, happily envisioning the scene. Tori did not like the look of that particular smile her frenemy wore.

"Anyone we might know?" André wondered.

"Dunno, just some pushy punk in a fake leather jacket." Jace uttered in a dark growl, his expression clearly painted the picture that he didn't care much for the person in question or the question itself.

Tori had to jump in at this point.

"It was Rhyder Daniels," She clarified for her friends, trying not to grin remembering the smack in the face her Ex recently received.

"Rhyder Daniels?" André and Beck said together giving each other a look of grudging respect to the new guy, they were impressed.

"Ha," Jade added in happily, he was someone even she could dislike. Heck, she just liked to see people suffer.

"What's the big deal?" The rough teen shrugged, not really caring for an answer but instead just trying to bring the conversation under wraps before the weird hippy teacher got involved.

"That's Tori's ex-boyfriend," Cat chortled in delight, "He's mean," She clarified.

"A real whazzbag," André agreed.

"Yeah, you can hit him as much as you want." Tori suggested cruelly, remembering how foolish she had felt being played by him.

"Dreadful, just dreadful," Sikowitz cried loudly breaking up the gang's conversation.

* * *

With attention back on him, the friends saw that the teacher wasn't actually talking to them for once. With a disappointed expression he was dismissing the small group of no-name background students that he had previously chosen for his scene.

"You were all so boring up there, no personal dramas or budding relationships at all." He berated them as if it was their fault, true to their name the disenchanted students just shrugged and returned to their seats.

"This is why I never pick you guys for anything," He addressed the unattractive students that made up the rest of the class.

"Harsh," André commented evenly.

Surveying the rest of the class, Sikowitz's crazy eyes finally fell on Tori and her group. More specifically, the grizzled new student who was taking a hit from a hip flask.

"You, the kid who is hiding out in my class," The teacher addressed Jace.

"You make a pretty mean sandwich, how's your acting?"

The boy in question choked on his drink at the question and ended up spraying it forth over André's shoes.

The dread-locked musician looked down at his soiled high-tops in disgust. The noxious smell of the light brown fluid quickly wafted up to reach him. He would have described it as smelling like paint thinner mixed with methylated spirits, with just a dash of nail polish remover. André blinked a few times as the fumes alone made his eyes water and his head swim.

The idiot who drunk that stuff normally, coughed a couple of times before giving a nervous laugh at the question put to him.

"Me act? No thanks" Jace shot down the idea, with a thick slur. "I'm just here to hide from that creepy social worker for an hour." He explained to the expectant teacher.

"Oh come on," Sikowitz insisted, "Let's see what you've got since you're here."

"Can we not and just say I did?" Jace pleaded in earnest.

"Nonsense boy, get up here," The teacher ordered before a sly edge took over his tone.

"Or Lane might somehow hear that you are hiding out in my classroom…" He added seeing the teen's continued reluctance.

Jace cocked an eyebrow, evaluating the crazy man before deciding not to try the obviously unbalanced man on his threat.

"Doesn't sound like I get much damn choice," The lad moaned, reaching back for his flask and taking an unashamed huge swig. After several large swallows, he tossed the small metal container back onto his bag and burped loudly. Even the Shruggers were paying attention now.

"Fuck it," He cursed to himself, climbing to stand on the class's stage, before addressing the so-called teacher.

"What do I do?" He muttered uncomfortably, crossing his broad arms and trying not to look at any of the faces in front of him.

"Don't be a grunch," Sikowitz scolded the newcomer for starters, before turning back to the rest of the class.

"Well first you need an acting partner," He declared, gazing over his potential candidates.

"Ohh me, me, pick me!" Cat shouted right next to Tori's ear, waving her arms in the air to attract the teacher's attention.

Tori leaned away from her enthusiastically loud friend and carefully turned a finger in the partially deafened ear to see if that would help her sudden hearing loss.

"Cat.." Sikowitz started, but didn't get to finish because the perky redhead had already jumped from her seat to join the large teen on stage.

Dwarfed by his stature, she wrapped both her arms around one of his thick arms and leaned her head in endearingly.

"Yay!" She giggled batting her eyelashes and looking delighted with the recent development.

Looking down at the enthusiastic girl hanging off his arm, Jace grimaced to him self before turning it into a weak smile when cat looked up at him.

"Well this isn't good." He murmured too quiet for her to hear.

* * *

Standing just outside the door, watching events unfold, Robbie pushed his glasses further back on his face. His hair still stood on end from the electricity, as did Rex's.

"Well this isn't good," Robbie muttered despondently at the scene in front of him.

Rex was silent for a moment before chipping in.

"Yeah, no chiz genius," The puppet snapped.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N-** Accidentally posted the sixth chapter instead of the fifth, but the mistake is rectified and I don't think anyone got a chance to read it yet. So the improvisation game I mention here is the only one I can remember from high school drama class, forgive me if a bit lame.

Enjoy.

_**Grey.**_

* * *

Jace looked down apprehensively at the redhead clinging to his arm, he opened his mouth to say something but Sikowitz beat him to it.

"Hmmm," He mused, stroking his unkempt beard.

"I was going to suggest Toro, but since you are already up here, I guess it is you Cat." The teacher decided, not completely happy the decision was made for him.

Tori frowned at the unwanted nickname she had gained in his bizarre class.

"Yay it is me Cat!" The girl in question exclaimed in victory, lifting the heavy arm in her grip into the air like a winning prize fighter.

"Yay?" Jace muttered uncertainly not liking the strangulating grip his limb was held in.

"Alright then we need an event." Sikowitz declared putting the suggestion out to the class.

Ideas started flooding in.

"The Swiss cheese festival!" André put forth excitedly.

"A rock concert." Beck called out loudly, after thinking about where someone who looked like Jace would fit in.

"A school," One of the Shruggers quietly suggested.

"Yeah or a class in a school," Another elaborated.

"Wow those Shruggers suck at suggestions." Tori noted, to the general agreement of her friends.

"Well what's yours?" Jade asked snidely.

"A kayaking trip." The pretty brunette carefully decided on, with a smug 'beat that tone to her frenemy.

"A children's tea party," Beck jumped in again, this time thinking where the big teen would definitely stick out.

"A car crash," Jade cynically came up with for her idea.

Sikowitz shook his head and waved off all the ideas as substandard, he was waiting for something really good.

"A wedding." André yelled to be heard over the Shruggers, who were now dead set on the idea of 'breakfast' for a scene.

"Oooh a wedding, I like that one!" Cat clapped happily seeing plenty of opportunity with the boy on stage. Jace looked a lot less comfortable with the idea, he could have sworn he felt his stomach empty as the girl clutched his arm possessively.

_She's kinda clingy, _he thought to himself.

Sikowitz looked undecided, but was slowly coming to a decision.

Tori racked her brain trying to think of a different creative event that might better take his fancy.

To her surprise it was Jade who won it and for some reason Tori felt relief.

She lapsed the class into a feared coma of silence with her final suggestion.

"A funeral." She hissed and Sikowitz immediately jumped on the idea.

"Yes! A funeral. That is perfect Jade!" He declared extravagantly, turning back to the two (un)lucky students on stage.

"I don't want a funeral, they are sad," Cat moaned dejectedly. Jace pointedly didn't seem to care; he just wanted to get it over with so he didn't have to stand on show by the weird girl anymore.

"Maybe you can make it happier somehow." Tori helpfully commented, still trying to figure out why she was oddly happy that the scene was a funeral and not a wedding.

Sikowitz jumped back in to finish his briefing. "Your scene is a funeral, but with a twist," He waggled his bushy eyebrows with the mystery.

"Oh my god, they are the ones who are dead!" André realised clutching his head like it was a huge revelation.

"No André but good M Night Shamalaning. No, in this scene they may only talk in questions." He revealed with a flourish.

The class hmmed, moderately interested in the challenge and to see how it went.

"Do you understand?" He asked his two actors to test whether they were ready.

"Yes!" Cat cried out eagerly, her small mind already devising how she was going to do her scene. Maybe she could make a funeral just as …productive… as a wedding.

"I mean how could I not?" She amended seeing her teacher's stern expression.

"Quite easily I would say." André commented quietly to Beck, who grinned at the jibe.

The classes collective attention turned to Jace to see if he was prepared.

"Is this really an acting exercise?" He slowly asked the insane teacher.

Sikowitz seemed to take his answer in question form as confirmation that the new student understood.

"Excellent," He yelled, "Anddd begin…" He started the scene, sitting back to fold his legs with a fresh coconut in hand.

All eyes turned to the two at the front.

* * *

Cat was already making herself look sad and she pretended to dab at her eyes.

Jace on the other hand hadn't changed at all and sighed heavily.

"Do I really have to do this?" He muttered reluctantly.

Not realising he was actually addressing Sikowitz, Cat replied in character.

"You don't want to be here?" She sniffed convincingly.

"Is there an alternative?" He wanted to know, still really only addressing the teacher.

"How could you even think about skipping her funeral?" Cat sadly accosted him.

Jace seemed confused that the scene had actually started.

"Funeral?" He asked in genuine bewilderment.

"It will be your funeral if you don't commit, boy." Sikowitz hissed in irritation, just loud enough for Jace to hear.

"Is this how you want to live? In denial?" Cat came back with, effectively saving the scene.

Over the tip of the spear McCabe was forced to try be part of the scene, he half heartedly lowered his head to copy Cat like they were standing beside an open grave.

"I don't feel like I have a choice, do I?" He pointedly replied, through his teeth.

"Can't you just accept she's not coming back?" Cat dramatically exclaimed between sobs.

Something in her words seemed to resound with the teen because his next words seemed authentic.

"How am I supposed to go on with out her?" He desolately voiced, his eyes holding an empty stare.

Cat reached a hand up to his shoulder, which sagged under her touch, like she had removed a weight.

"Would you ever consider, moving on..?" Cat suggested slinking in closer to him and halting the waterworks.

Jace's eyes seemed to regain focus at her accentuated presence.

"What do you mean?" He asked tentatively, his performance back to being stiff and wooden.

Watching intently from the floor, Tori realised her advice to Cat to try and make her funeral happier may have been dangerous. She had become acutely aware of where Cat was going with things even if Jace didn't. Looking at André and Beck, the pair raised their eyebrows quizzically as if it was an unexpected outcome to them as well.

Jade didn't participate in the non-verbal conversation and instead firmly kicked the back of Tori's chair, earning a chance to smile at the dirty look she received from the girl. She did it partly because she didn't like anyone eyebrow raising with her boyfriend, but mostly because it was fun and she liked getting a reaction from the sweeter brunette.

"Well, don't funerals make you see how short life is and make you thankful for what you have left?" Cat endeared batting her eyelashes at him in an all too authentic manner. Beck nodded, impressed despite it all; he sometimes forgot what a good actor Cat was, any sign of the ditzy redhead disappeared as she took on a character.

* * *

Jace looked uncomfortable as she further invaded his personal space, thinking quickly he found his diversion.

"How did she die?" He overly dramatically lamented, pulling away from Cat. There were groans from the class at the over performing. Obviously the guy on stage had never acted before.

The red head seemed a bit put out by the rejection and struggled to find a line.

"How should I know?" She moodily answered.

Thinking on his feet Jace quickly came back with.

"You were her sister weren't you?"

Remembering André's suggestion earlier he followed up with a further question.

"Did something happen at the Swiss Cheese festival?" He demanded unconvincingly.

André punched a fist triumphantly in the air as if saluting him for the reference and paying thanks.

"How was I to know that she was lactose intolerant?" Cat defended her self, before suddenly snatching on another plan to twist the scene.

"Was that why she kept yelling that when I force-fed her the Gouda?" She wondered with a pseudo innocent expression.

"Or maybe it was the car crash?" She pondered with a devious thinkful look on her pretty face.

From the audience, Jade beamed proudly at her friend for both the addition of her suggested situation and the dark turn the performance had taken overall. She hadn't thought that sweet little cat had it in her. Content, she kicked Tori's chair a couple more times before settling in to watch the drama.

Tori clenched her jaw but resisted the urge to turn and scowl at her antagonist, she was too invested in what was happening on stage.

Jace was actually surprised by the turn of events adding realism to his next question.

"Did you kill her?" he growled, not struggling to find some anger to attach to his voice.

Cat shivered at the rough quality in his voice and determinedly pushed on with her plan.

"Maybe it was an accident?" she shrugged coldly.

"Why?" Jace simply replied, his eyes drifting to the clock on the wall and wondering how much longer he was going to have to play this silly game with the crazy redhead.

Cat played her trump card, quickly sliding into his arms with the distraction.

"Do you want me?" She breathed, hanging from around his neck and standing on her tiptoes to lavishly kiss him full on the lips.

* * *

Jaws all over the class dropped, Tori's lower then most as she watched her sweet, slightly promiscuous friend make out with the new guy on stage.

"Cat.." She uttered quietly.

From outside the window a lone bespectacled teen, whispered the same name before turning away from the scene. Robbie couldn't stand to watch anymore and even Rex was lost for words as he was unceremoniously dropped in the bushes. Without a single glance back Robbie silently walked away from his puppet and window, sobbing silently to himself.

It took Jace a couple of moments to realise what was happening. For an instant his body was lost in immediate reaction to the pleasant kiss and in the memory of past kisses from a different girl. Once his senses reasserted themselves, he immediately reached up to break the grip around his neck so he could pull back from the passionate girl's mouth.

Cat's eyes sparkled as she turned them up to look at him.

"Well?" she sweetly whispered.

His expression didn't quite match hers and he was somewhere between embarrassment and dismay. Nervously Jace licked his lips; they tasted vaguely of cherries and still hummed from the sensation.

Sikowitz was moving quick to break up the scene before it left the pg rating. But he was beaten to the punch by Jace, who was often quick to punch, but in this case yelled instead.

"Hey is that Taylor Swift?!" He yelled in amazement, pointing to the back of the class and putting on a better performance then he had in the whole five minute improve scene.

Like suckers, the whole class turned to where he had pointed, hoping and expecting to see their pop/western music heroine.

It was of course a ruse and Jace used the distraction to bolt through the front door of the classroom.

"Where?" Cat called in confusion slightly after the rest of the class. She was still basking the pleasant afterglow of the kiss she had managed to force into the scene.

"Man, there ain't no Taylor Swift, it was a ruse." André announced somewhat unnecessarily.

"I know right?" Jade confirmed, putting her bag back down. "Good thing too, I'm not allowed within a hundred metres of her." She muttered.

"Me neither," Beck grumbled, sending his girlfriend a dark frown, only to receive a spiteful smile in return.

"And Jace is gone," Tori observed, noting the backpack still residing on the floor at his empty seat.

"Wait, why aren't you two allowed near Taylor Swift?" Tori curiously inquired, jumping back to what Jade had said.

Jade narrowed her gaze like there was no way she was going to dignify the other girl with an answer.

Beck simply sighed and explained.

"Jade tried to cut her hair off."

"She has too much of it." Jade shrieked defensively, crossing her arms.

"My brother tried doing that to animals at the zoo." Cat shyly added, her exuberant presence drying up somewhat, as she stepped off the stage and slipped out of character.

Her friends waited for the other shoe to drop.

"He shouldn't have started with the hyenas.." she sadly finished another story about her crazy brother.

"Why isn't Beck allowed near Taylor Swift?" Tori asked, ignoring the red head, who had only just noticed that the boy she had kissed had disappeared in the confusion.

"Because she is TAYLOR SWIFT," Jade slowly gritted out as if that one was obvious. Her eyes were practically glowing green with jealousy.

Beck hung his head in defeat, another argument with his insecure girlfriend he could never win.

Surprisingly Tori was actually on Jade's side for that fight.

"I can see why Jade wouldn't want you around her," she conceded fairly.

"Taylor is really pretty and goes through more boys than Cat…."

Tori trailed off at the end of her sentence as she looked around and noticed her peppy smaller friend was nowhere in sight.

Jade frowned at the sentence maybe in the comparison to Cat or more likely because of the implication that Taylor Swift was better looking than her.

"Cat.." Tori repeated, not seeing the girl anywhere and realising where she had gone, or rather who she had followed.

"Here we go,," Beck commented dryly, as they watched Tori snatch up both teens forgotten bags before briskly making for the door.

Beck and André turned to stare at Jade as if seeking her permission to go too.

"Fine!" The Gothic girl relented and the three rose from their seats to chase the action.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N- **A wild chapter appeared! Have to admit I enjoyed writing this one, hope you all enjoy reading it.

_**-Grey.**_

* * *

Jace slunk quickly down the hallway leading from Sikowitz's class, his body was stooped in an effort to draw more stealth from the reduced height.

His footfalls were silent and rapid as he beat a hasty retreat towards the main entrance of the school.

Words fell from his mouth in a whispered mumble as if he was berating himself.

"Stupid…. Crazy….. Nothing but trouble…. Find it…. Got to get outta here." He grumbled with apparently only himself to talk to.

Until he rounded the corner and almost ran right into Robbie Shapiro.

Quick as a cat he pounced back in surprise and started to slink back the way he had come from, but it was too late; Robbie had seen him.

"Jace," He greeted the other teen, his voice sounding high and strained.

"Going somewhere?" Robbie loudly noted.

His grey eyes darting past Robbie, Jace saw Lane standing all the way over by the exit to the school. He was obviously guarding the way out, but apparently hadn't heard or seen who Robbie was talking to by the corner.

Reacting quickly, the larger teen shot out one of massive paw to grip Robbie and forcibly pulled him back around the corner out of sight of the counselor. He pushed Robbie tight up against the lockers on the other side so he could still see in the direction Lane was in.

"Robbie right?" Jace quietly checked to see he had the name right. He was terrible at remembering names.

"Yeah, Robbie," The boy confirmed in a grating voice, which was unusual for him.

He roughly pushed Jace's hand off of his collar, a fairly bold move on his part, and scowled at him.

Jace's marred face twisted in confusion at receiving such a venomous look from someone he didn't really know, especially one so puny.

"What's the problem?" He demanded in a hiss, his hackles rising at the waves of anger coming off the other kid. Uncertainly he took a half step back, figuring it mightn't be a bad idea to give the guy some room.

Robbie almost seemed to explode at the simple question.

"The problem is that you made out with Cat!" He screeched uncharacteristically, his face red.

Jace cocked an eyebrow as he realised what the guy's beef was.

"Woaah, slow your roll there Slim," He tried to calm the furious teen down, unconsciously raising double placating palms between them.

"I saw you!" Robbie accused, stomping to punctuate his point.

Jace anxiously took hold of the corner and craned his head around the corner to see if the counselor had heard the noise. Luckily Lane was too distracted rubbing some moisturiser on his hands to have noticed the noise.

The awkward teen breathed a sigh of relief and turned back to the angry problem at hand.

The kid opposite him was getting more and more wound up at being ignored.

_Damn I could use a drink, _Jace thought to himself.

"Okay, it happened." He admitted with a slur, just as Cat came through the door beside them closely followed by Tori and the others.

Their sudden appearance provided a distraction to the rugged teenager and is probably why he didn't notice when Robbie took a swing at him.

* * *

Jace's head snapped to aside painfully from the first real punch Robbie had ever thrown in his life. Anger fueled his reaction and lent it strength as well, admittedly he had been aiming for Jace's already crooked nose, but the cheek wasn't bad for a first go. Robbie suddenly realised that it might well be his last go too, as he watched the face of the guy he had just hit.

It was obvious Jace had taken a punch or two before in his time by the way his head instantly whipped back to its original position, this time with a dangerous glint to his eyes. His broad shoulder's bunched, as he brought his strong arms to automatically cover any follow up blows. He seemed to grow ten feet in height and exude strength now, a stark contrast to the guy who had been trying to sneak around only moments earlier. His face bristled into a perilous snarl as he prepared for a fight.

But the fight didn't come, Robbie stood in front of him, the anger having all fled from his face to be replaced with terror.

_Holy hambone! _He thought to himself completely shocked at his own actions. From behind them in front row seats, his five friends stood stock still, equally amazed by his actions. Their dropped jaws could have held a fist.

_What am I crazy? Jace is enormous! _Robbie remembered, his eyes catching on his opponents far superior size.

He began to cringe in fright, awaiting the counterattack with his arms up feebly to protect his head.

* * *

A counterattack that didn't come.

Peering between his fingers he caught a flash of bright red and realised he was still alive. Standing between Robbie and Jace, Cat Valentine stood defiantly, looking up at the largest of the pair.

"Please don't hurt Robbie," She quickly pleaded, playing up her little girl looks.

Jace's eyes were like two impenetrable orbs of ice assessing her, he didn't say anything.

Surprisingly it was Jade who lead the charge to reinforce Cat's wall. Impatiently she strode in to stand by her friend, in front of Robbie. She fixed her expression to her most severe and withering, before folding her arms as if to say 'I dare ya'.

Beck was bare steps behind his girlfriend, with André and Tori hurrying in to face the violent teen and protect their friends as well.

Jace still hadn't moved and Beck spoke up to defuse the situation.

"You can't hit him back through all of us." He declared bravely, raising his chin in challenge.

"Yeah" André agreed, flexing the muscles in his arms and shoulders, a physique that almost rivaled his opponents.

Suddenly moving after standing like a statue for so long, Jace's shoulder slumped and his arm rose.

Several things happened at once; Cat instinctively cringed with a squeak and curled into a ball by Robbie, who put an arm over her. Beck deftly slid in front of a surprised Jade and raised both his hands, prepared to fight. On the other side of Tori, André bristled up as well and brought his arms higher. Tori for her own part just stood there, arms at her side, chin bravely raised and a tight expression.

They were all prepared in their own way for an attack.

* * *

Another attack that didn't come.

It took the group a second to realise what Jace was actually doing.

The teen had a hand to his face and was tenderly rubbing his jaw where Robbie had clocked him one. All the storm had left his eyes and if anything they looked hollow.

"I wasn't going to hit anyone." He growled flatly and the group relaxed.

Robbie and Cat stood back up and rejoined the line, Tori and André relaxed with a slunk and Jade pushed past her boyfriend with a reproachable look for his chivalry. That was her way of saying thanks.

Robbie realised his arm was still on Cat's and quickly removed it remembering he was still mad with her too.

"I knew that," Tori mumbled nervously, not really convincing anyone and likely just trying to make up for her non-reaction. Jade rolled her eyes.

Jace spoke again, addressing Robbie alone this time.

"She kissed me dude, not the other way round. I didn't get much choice in the matter." He shrugged; ignoring Cat's slightly put out expression.

That took a lot of heat out of Robbie's eyes but a stubborn edge still remained.

"So.." Cat started hopefully at Jace, but he cut her off.

"Sorry Red, not interested in ya like that." He grumbled softly to her.

Despite how gently his intention had been, her eyes still watered up and she walked away to the other side of the hall. Jade and Tori had a frantic head flick and eye darting argument to decide who went over to comfort her, again surprisingly it was Jade who went to see her. In the end Tori had just wanted to stay round more to hear the end of what Jace had to say.

"You still kissed her back." Robbie cagily reminded Jace.

The rough looking teen sighed at this point and uncomfortably scratched his neck.

"Yeah, about that…" He mumbled his words quietly and tried to think of how to explain what had happened.

All eyes were fixed intently on him waiting for him to elaborate, some more then others.

"That was because of something else altogether…" he muttered, still trying to find the right words. Tori's eyes narrowed at the words 'something else'.

Seeming to have found an idea Jace started speaking again.

"Call some of it instinct, a pretty girl kisses ya, you kiss em back right?" He explained, the guys all nodded in agreement, even the one who hadn't kissed many girls.

"And the rest of it?" Tori pressed, noting that he hadn't mentioned it all.

"And the rest? Lets just say part of me forgot where I was and who I was making out with." Jace cryptically replied, with a forlorn expression like a man haunted.

"I mean what I said to her, I don't like her like that. Like you do." He finished, addressing Robbie honestly as if he was the only other one there.

Robbie blushed feverously at the implication and his gaze wandered over to the red head, who had finished crying and hiccuping and was starting to smile again with Jade. No doubt the goth girl was cheering her up by saying terrible things about good people. Or about Jace.

* * *

"Well I guess it's alright then," The nerd muttered, with the smallest of smiles. _I don't have to worry about competition; _Robbie thought in satisfaction before noticing the way Tori was looking at Jace. _At least for Cat anyway, _he amended the thought.

"Nice punch," Jace added, with the rarest of smiles lighting his face and giving it humor. He absently still rubbed his cheek but impatiently batted away Tori's hand when she stepped close and reached up to examine it with concern.

Robbie smiled back with a painful grimace.

"I think I broke my hand.." He confessed and the remaining friends noticed for the first time that he had one hand cradled in the other.

Beck took Robbie's arm and held up the already swelling limb for inspection, André peered over his shoulder.

"Yup that's broken." Beck flatly pronounced and Robbie gasped loudly.

"That's proper busted" André agreed, causing Robbie to pale.

"Ohh ouch!" Tori winced and commented.

"Can I pass out now?" Robbie asked them, sinking to his knees and clutching his hand once more.

"I gotta hard head." Jace shrugged with the same very small smile.

Tori's gaze had returned to his face curiously like she was trying to figure out a puzzle once more. She noticed his eyes widen and colour suddenly drain from his face at a noise.

The sound of footsteps could be heard approaching and Jace hissed one name.

"Lane…"

* * *

Likely drawn by Robbie's cry, the counselor chose to investigate the hushed commotion around the corner.

Jace pressed himself tight to the wall of lockers and looked at the others darkly.

"Damn it, I'm suspended if he catches me this week." He confessed gravely.

Beck pondered the 'this week part'.

"Two fights in one week right?" He confirmed with the guilty teen.

Jace nodded, afraid of talking as the teacher's proximity increased.

"But if he finds you Monday it can only be a warning again." Tori pointed out, remembering the discipline standards held at Hollywood Arts.

"That's correct." Robbie confirmed from the ground.

Tori's eyes were alight with an idea and she turned to André and Beck.

"Quick, get Robbie around the corner to distract Lane." She ordered.

The two teens nodded and lifted the skinny geek under his arms and dragged him to his feet around the corner in front of the teacher.

"Hey Lane you used to be a nurse right? Robbie is hurt." André called to the man in front of them.

"I don't know how that rumor got started, but yes I was. What happened?" Lane replied coming closer to the trio.

Aware they were only just around the corner; Beck pulled Robbie forward and held his hand up to show the ex-nurse.

Thinking quickly he came up with a plausible excuse.

"Uhhh Rex tried to pull off a backflip." He lied, before giving Robbie's sore hand a shake.

"I thought he promised to stop trying to do one." Lane cursed, testing the flex of his patient's fingers.

"I think he might have broken Shapiro's hand," Andre added, his friend writhing in pain that was now a lot more then just good acting.

"First the electrocution in the morning, now this. It's been a rough day for you Robbie." Lane clucked sympathetically and frowning at the deformed hand.

"Straight to the school nurse." He declared leading Robbie and walking straight around the corner before either Beck or André could stop him.

André and Beck bounded after him with a sense of foreboding only to find no Jace or Tori, instead just Cat and Jade stood by the door.

"Do you want me to come with you?" Cat shyly asked Robbie as they approached, her eyes were still red from crying.

"That would be nice Cat," He beamed and Beck broke off from his flanking position to let her in, he dropped back to link arms with Jade instead.

The couple hung back by the drink machines until the rest of the group left.

"Well that was close." Jade commented.

"How close?" Beck wanted to know, taking up her hand.

Trailing Beck's hand, Jade slowly strolled back to the door on the right and quietly turned the lock on the frequently used janitor's closet.

"They're in there?" He guessed, hoping that was in fact his girlfriend unlocking the door. It wasn't.

With a malicious grin she nodded and started leading her boyfriend away before he decided to do anything decent, like checking she hadn't in fact been locking the door. She had.

"That close huh?" He finished following her out of the hall.

The door to the closet rattled ineffectively as they left, much to the occupants despair.


End file.
